Demystifying Psychological Safety
After college, I worked as an entry-level staffer in a small nonprofit founded and led by an imposing, outspoken man 40 years my senior.
One day he came into the department where I worked and proposed a sweeping change that would double our team's workload without adding new staff.
My co-workers agreed with me that the idea wouldn’t fly, but the head of our department wasn’t willing to challenge the boss. We all knew he was used to getting his way.
Since I felt strongly about the issue, I reached out to a senior staffer in another division. I suggested we collaborate on a survey to find out what the group’s members thought about the proposal.
A few weeks later, we had proof the vast majority of members were against the change. My colleague took the lead in calmly walking the boss through the unequivocal survey findings. After that meeting, I was shaking with fear; I ran to the bathroom and sobbed for 10 minutes.
While I was elated we had won, I'd been terrified of the leader. If I had not loved my job and had friends on the staff, I suspect I would have quit after that incident.
What Is “Psychological Safety” & Why Does It Matter?
In the intervening decades, we’ve seen a sea change in how society views leadership, especially in the social sector. In previous posts, I argued that nonprofit leaders need to make sure that their employees feel safe so they can do their work while staying healthy. (See "Set a Healthy Tone" and "What Makes You Feel Unsafe at Work?")
Now there's more evidence that it’s incumbent on leaders to create and maintain "psychological safety." A recent McKinsey & Co. blog offers this straightforward definition of psychological safety: “the absence of interpersonal fear.”
Social and organizational scientists view psychological safety as a basic need – what people must have in order to be and do their best in all areas of their lives.
“Psychological safety means feeling safe to take interpersonal risks, to speak up, to disagree openly,” the McKinsey authors state, “[and] to surface concerns without fear of negative repercussions or pressure to sugarcoat bad news.”
Workplace studies have documented psychological safety’s importance to workers. It should also matter to leaders, because, “it substantially contributes to team effectiveness, learning, employee retention, and—most critically—better decisions and better performance.”
How Common is This Kind of Safety in Workplaces?
McKinsey’s own research shows that psychological safety — a prerequisite for productive, creative and healthy teams — is actually the exception rather than the rule in US workplaces.
If it’s so important, how can leaders create more psychological safety at work?
McKinsey argues that employers must invest in ongoing leadership development, focusing on a few key skills that foster psychological safety, including:
Open-dialogue skills, which allow leaders to safely explore disagreements and tensions on a team;
Sponsorship, which helps leaders facilitate the success of team members; and
Situational humility, which teaches leaders how to develop curiosity and a growth mindset
The post's chief takeaway is to start where you are and provide continuing opportunities for current and future leaders to cultivate skills in listening, curiosity, empathy and other emotional intelligence skills. Annual one-off trainings won't boost these essential leadership competencies.
With so much attention paid these days to supporting worker wellbeing as much as productivity, I'm hopeful that leaders like my first boss will become increasingly scarce. But it's clear we've got a long way to go.